Brief Candles "Bernadette" from Brief Candles Live at High Noon Saloon Madison, WI Jan 7, 2006

Whoever's responsible for putting three opening bands and a $5 cover on the Dials show -- whether the Dials themselves or the folks at High Noon -- has my thanks. The New Year's resolution that I never seem to pull off is to see more local bands on their own, rather than opening for out-of-towners, and this show gave me three Madison and Milwaukee acts to follow up on. Having limited space on the camera, I decided not record anything from His & Her Vanities or Screamin' Cyn-Cyn & the Pons (but wound up getting a one-minute song from the Pons anyway) since I figure I'll have plenty of opportunities to see them again soon, but made sure to get a song from Brief Candles, in from Milwaukee.

They seemed like an odd choice to open for the Dials -- all shoegazey and with a singer who could double as a blond, female James Iha -- but I enjoyed their set nonetheless. There's a hard edge to the current crop of shoegaze nostalgists that I always found lacking in the likes of My Bloody Valentine and Galaxie 500. Taking cues from bands like Hum, Cave In, even the Smashing Pumpkins, Brief Candles has that edge, the Life and Times has that edge. Their stage presence is a little odd, what with the singer putting on a big mope while the rest of the band goes crazy, but it worked for me. They have an EP out now, and a full-length coming later this year, maybe one to look forward to.